Ivor Parker and Karen Palaza have been collectively for 20 years and deal with every day as if it have been Valentine’s Day. At some point lately, Karen realized one thing was very unsuitable together with her accomplice when instantly Ivor might barely converse and could not acknowledge her whereas in any other case seeming to be totally acutely aware and cell.

Karen rushed Ivor to the Emergency Division at Lengthy Island Neighborhood Hospital, which is affiliated with NYU Langone. What NYU Langone neurosurgeon Donald Krieff, DO, found was one thing he had by no means seen in additional than 25 years of being a surgeon—a bubble on the mind.

After having a CT scan and an MRI, Ivor was recognized with a 6-to-7-centimeter air bubble close to the left temporal lobe of his mind, a comparatively uncommon situation often called pneumocephalus. Ivor had emergency surgical procedure, and when Dr. Krieff opened the overlaying to the mind, the bubble utterly dissipated. When Ivor wakened within the restoration room, he was totally in a position to converse.

“Once I first noticed the bubble on the scan, I believed, ‘That is loopy. It must be one thing else,’ however that wasn’t the case,” stated Dr. Krieff, who’s chief of neurosurgery service on the hospital and a medical assistant professor within the Division of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman College of Drugs. He was in a position to totally restore Ivor’s cranium after the bubble evaporated, however nonetheless does not know what triggered it. Mind bubbles happen sometimes after scuba diving or being in a hyperbaric chamber, however Ivor had carried out neither.

The 74-year-old Lengthy Island man was discharged from the hospital on Christmas Day, simply two days after surgical procedure, and he considers it a miracle.

“It was a life-changing expertise. We will not thank Dr. Krieff and the medical workers sufficient,” stated Ivor, who does not keep in mind a lot about what occurred earlier than the surgical procedure. However his vital different recollects each single second.

The thought of him not understanding my identify and never being with me was scary. Life is valuable, and you need to embrace each second.”

Karen Palaza

The couple first met at a church in England, which is the place Ivor is from. On the time she was a widow attempting to get well from her loss, and he was lately divorced. They are saying they stopped exchanging sweet and flowers on Valentine’s Day as a result of they contemplate being collectively their largest reward.